I took a few days off around the weekend for an autumn holiday. Today, we went north-east of Amsterdam. The Dutch basically built an entire province there out of a lake/former sea bed. Schokland is a former island that is now integrated into this newer provincial land. The remains of…
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New Year
Siblings and siblings in-law gathered in our house to celebrate New Year’s. We spent the entire day together, from morning until midnight. It was a long day full of shopping, eating, and waiting. During the afternoon, we explored the shopping street of a large nearby town. Our small town turned chaotic…
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Spoorweg Museum
Since acquiring annual museum cards, we decided to venture out to various museums across the country. This weekend we visited Het Spoorwegmuseum Utrecht. It is the national Dutch railway museum located in the center of the Netherlands. The museum is housed around a former train station named Maliebaan. There are…
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Happy Thanksgiving!
Happy Thanksgiving! Normally we go into Amsterdam for Thanksgiving dinner at Hard Rock cafe. This is the first year I made dinner at home. Since it was the two of us, I made a limited menu of turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, salad, lingonberry lemonade, and apple pie. My attempt turned…
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Beeld en Geluid
Our Museum Cards arrived this week. It allows unpaid access to the vast majority of Dutch museums, including places like the Anne Frank House or local castles. We used our cards for the first time at the Beeld en Geluid Museum (Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision) in Hilversum. It is…
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October Weekends
Autumn colors finally started showing in October. Holland is fading to yellow and orange. We were lucky enough to have plenty of sunny warm weekends. Last Sunday, we managed to ride 14+ km (7 miles) from our house to the sea and back. The weather was similarly hospitable this weekend,…
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Camping
I went on my first official camping trip this week. It’s typical for many Europeans to utilize camping as a form of travel over hotels (and more conventional American methods). Once summer hits, Europe is flooded with campers, hikers and tourists. From East to West, there are masses of camping…
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Easter Weekend
Easter weekend started with a flood of color. The flower season is fully in gear, with flowers all over Zuid-Holland. We were also treated to dramatic Dutch skies full of golden sunlight. Easter weekend is particularly special in the Netherlands. There is an additional day of vacation granted on the Monday…
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Flower Season
Flower season started in January, but it’s finally in full swing!
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Paastaken
It’s strange celebrating many of the same holidays here (in the same manner), but missing out on others in the meantime. The most noticeably absent (and fun) holidays are St. Patrick’s Day, Independence Day, and Halloween. Easter is one of the holdays that is celebrated in a similar manner to…
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